New Boxster; First Autocross and Track Day

Toby was bitten by the track bug and found the Civic’s 100mph “top speed” a little limiting, so the search began…

The decision criteria was short:
1) A Convertible; 2) Good for Autocross; 3) Good for Track Days and 4) Not another Miata 🙂 Comfort and practicality didn’t make it on the list.

So the search was narrowed down to four car: BMW Z3, Honda S2000, Mercedes SLK and Porsche Boxster.

Toby and Kenny test drove all four and their choice was between the S2000 and the Boxster. The S2000 9000 rpm redline was addicting, and its gearing and handling was great for autocross.

However, the Boxster won out. With its integrated roll bar, it was ready for track days. The Boxster also allowed them to join the local Porsche Club, which had one of the best organized track day (Driver Education / “DE”) program in the country.

Toby named her “Dirty Molly”. They took her to an autocross within a few days of the purchase and it was barely weeks later when she made her track debut at the PCA track day, again on the Shenandoah event.

First Autocross (No Tags!)Toby exiting “Karousel”

The PCA Potomac DE Registrar (Bruce Dobb) was nice enough to allow us to share a car in the beginner (Green) group, driving half of the run sessions each.

Bruce was Kenny’s instructor, while another experienced racer Tony Kelly was Toby’s instructor.

(Thanks to many years of Gran Turismo?) Kenny did well in his first session and he was allowed to move up to the next run group. From that moment on, corner workers and fellow drivers would see a yellow car “double stinting” at all events.